Enhancing Literacy Skills Using Indigenous Games

Background Of The Study

Let us take a picture of a real story where a teacher decided to cut a piece of paper and write a simple statement that says I will go to Botswana during December holidays. The paper was given to one student and the student was asked to tell the next learner what was written in the paper. The information rotated and the 10^th person was asked to tell the class the story she was told by the student sited next to her. Students were given a chance to view the original message, to their surprise, the original message written was very different to words uttered by the last speaker. Students were surprised to realise that in the process of passing the information from one student to another, a lot of information was lost and distorted before it reached the next person. The teacher used a simple game to let the students learn critical skills pertaining to passing information. The teacher may have used talk and chalk to tell the students not to take everything they hear as concrete truth, to evaluate information, may be not to take things they hear on face value, may be to learn to listen carefully and report information accurately, but he used a game to enhance the knowledge. The class was so amazed to learn that not everything they hear from people will be accurate information and the fact that it is important to listen and report on information as accurately as possible. The game was so exciting that information was learned in a comical way and it is impossible for children to forget what was taught in this manner. In this statement, we introduce game based learning and our aim in this chapter is to assess the practicality of indigenous games in enhancing literacy skills.

Van Mele and Renson (1990: 16) mention that traditional games are recreational activities with local and cultural dimensions, having roots in traditional life of people. The ‘traditional’ label represents a time dimension of being preserved and transmitted from one generation to the next among a group (Van der Merwe, 1999), in this case, traditional games or what we refer to in this chapter as Indigenous games. Indigenous knowledge and games within the South African context, reflect the circumstances, traditions and cultures of the various population groups and communities which have been identified by the people as being part of their cultural heritage (Corlett & Mokgwathi, 1986). The Afro-centric nature of knowledge and games form an integral part of the Nguni, Sotho and Venda-speaking peoples as they originally migrated from the central lakes of Africa and settled in the southernmost end of Africa, during the 12th century (Junod, 1927; Schapera, 1966) as cited by (Bunnert & Holander, 2004).

Alegi (2004: 10) alluded that examples of indigenous games that were played in pre-colonial times includes among others stick-fighting as one of the popular indigenous game that was played in some parts of Zululand. Even though stick-fighting was considered rough play, it was nonetheless a play which had its own rules. It was prohibited to use a short spear. Further, stabbing was also prohibited and other dangerous war techniques designed to ensure fairness and avert severe injuries. Cattle raiding, racing and hunting also formed part of the popular indigenous games amongst men particularly between the ages of eighteen and forty. For example, cattle racing (uleqo) among the Xhosa speaking people provided both ritual and competitive entertainment. Both the Xhosa and Basotho men raced specialised oxen (Alegi, 2004: 11).